Job Cuts at Recession Levels, CEO Exits Spike

By John Hazard |
Posted 2008-11-24

The anemic U.S. job market is now bleeding out.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outsourcing consultant company, alerted reporters and analysts today, Nov. 24, that its November jobs report, due Dec. 3, put the number of jobs lost "even closer to the 172,373 job cuts per month averaged during the last recession."

The October report saw planned job cuts soar 19 percent to 112,884, but significant layoff announcements from Citigroup, Sun Microsystems, Circuit City and others will push November's numbers close to 177,000, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The numbers in Challenger's November CEO turnover report, to be released Dec. 8, are expected to exceed the 2007 total one month early. In October, 125 CEOs abandoned ship.